Recruiters find pitch gets harder to sell

August 16, 2005|By The Baltimore Sun.

Despite pledging tens of thousands of dollars in sign-up bonuses, sending thousands more recruiters into the streets, and mounting a new ad campaign aimed at encouraging parents to support recruitment, the job for recruiters seems to be getting more difficult.

Besides the active Army, the Army Reserve and the National Guard also are expected to miss their yearly goals and fall thousands of recruits short, officials said.

The rising casualty rate in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with a stronger economy at home, has 17- to 24-year-olds who might otherwise join up thinking twice. And Army polling information shows that parents have increasingly soured on letting their children sign up.

A senior Army officer said privately that the best recruitment tool would be a reduction in U.S. forces in Iraq.

But President Bush said last week that no decision has been made on when the 138,000 troops will start to come home.

Lt. Col. Mike Jones, deputy recruiting and retention chief for the National Guard Bureau, said Guard recruiting is finally starting to pick up, spurred by more recruiters and increased bonuses.

Guard officials concede that they won't be back to full strength--about 350,000 soldiers--until next summer.

"This is the first time that the American military has tried to recruit for a volunteer war since the Civil War," said retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales.

"What it means is you've got to change the way you recruit."

Scales said the Army has three options: reduce its missions, increase recruiting or institute a draft. Only the second option is politically supportable, he said.

To succeed, he believes the Army must provide more money for those willing to go into harm's way for their country--not just in signing bonuses but in regular pay.

And he favors recruitment of more foreign-born residents, particularly Middle Easterners, with a promise of U.S. citizenship.

Falling behind

The Army is about 7,000 soldiers short of its 80,000 yearly recruiting goal with less than two months before the end of the fiscal year. The Army Reserve is about 5,000 short of its 23,000 goal, and the Army National Guard is nearly 11,000 below its year-end goal of 51,000.